Exploring southern Italy by car

Trulli houses have a distinct conical roof structure. (Photo by

Photograph by: Loraine Whysall
, for Canwest News Service

My husband Steve and I had been to Italy three times and thought it was time to do a tour of the south; however, I was apprehensive about travelling there. I had heard stories about petty theft and Mafia crime.

But this month-long adventure quickly made me realize the people in southern Italy were no less warm, friendly and welcoming than those in the north.

Steve and I started our tour after being in Rome for three days.

We picked up a rental car, a yellow Fiat Panda, which we nicknamed Banana Panda. Equipped with GPS, we headed for Sorrento. We stopped in Pompeii en route and were surprised at how big and impressive the site was and marvelled at the views of Vesuvius.

In Sorrento we checked into the Hotel Grande De La Ville, which had two pools, served up a fabulous breakfast and offered excellent service.

We took the ferry from there to Capri and the funicular to the summit to enjoy the view.

Heading down the Amalfi coast on the winding, twisting road with marvellous views of the Bay of Naples, our next stop was just outside the town of Amalfi, at the Villa St. Michele.

We meandered down cliffside pathways to our room with balcony on the water's edge.

Rather than drive, we took the local bus up the hill on a hair-raising ride to the breathtakingly beautiful town of Ravello. A 10-minute walk through the town took us to the garden at Villa Cimbrone, with its gorgeous vistas, statuary and amazing views from the Terrace of Infinity.

Next we drove through the lush, green countryside of Campania to Basilicata, the poorest of the Italian provinces, to the cave town called Matera, once the shame of Italy.

It was haunting to see the caves, or "sassi," where families once lived with their livestock in the side of the hills. People were moved out of the caves into apartments starting in 1954 after novelist Carlo Levi shocked the country with his descriptions of life there.

Matera was made famous by the Levi in Christ Stopped at Eboli and by numerous film directors, including Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mel Gibson.

In 1993 Matera was the first town in southern Italy included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. Our room at Hotel Caveoso, was a refurbished sassi.

From Matera, we went to Alberobello, in Puglia, (the heel of the boot). Arriving here was a like stepping into a storybook. We checked into our hotel, the bed and breakfast Trulli Pietradimora, which contained three guest rooms. A trulli is a dwelling of the Puglia region of Italy, with conical roof structures.

We were the only ones in the hotel for the first couple of days. In the morning Danielle, the concierge, would bring us our breakfast on the terrace. For the rest of the time, we would lock up after we went out and let ourselves in in the evening. Puglia was very affordable and not accessible by train, which meant there were fewer tourists.

We quickly discovered the Rinnacola restaurant around the corner from our hotel and ate there every night because it was so delicious. We sat on the roof surrounded by the trulli and enjoyed local specialties, mostly accompanied with orecchiette pasta.

After dinner we would come back to the hotel, get a bottle of local wine, some of the finest whites in Italy, and sit on the roof deck of our hotel. Surrounded by the conical roofs of the trulli, with swallows swooping over the rooftops, it was like being in a Dr. Seuss story.

From Alberobello, we took a day trip to the capital of Puglia, Lecce. This is known as the "Florence of the south" because of the baroque architecture of many of the churches and monuments. We didn't know what to expect, but Lecce both surprised and delighted us.

Lecce was first a Greek city, then a Roman town. We started our visit at piazza Sant'Oronzo, site of the most important local Roman ruins: a 25,000-seat amphitheatre from the first century BC and a column that originally stood in Brindisi to mark the end of the Appian Way.

Nearby was the church of Santa Croce with its baroque facade and beautiful Renaissance interior.

While travelling through Calabria, our GPS sometimes lost the plot, and we would end up down some little country cow road. We eventually made it to Tropea, where we stayed for two nights, after a brief visit to Pizzo with its beautiful facades and a lovely piazza.

Tropea had marvellous beaches with pure white sand and clear aqua blue water. Our hotel, Villa Antica Tropea, wins the prize for the best mini bar ever, with 10 bottles of wine. The hotel breakfast was creative. The first day we were served freshly cooked green beans, a plate of cheeses and meats and a plate of cream pastries.

After taking the ferry from Reggio Calabria to Messina in Sicily, we drove to Taormina, where we stayed for the next four days. Taormina was a favourite destination of writers such as D.H. Lawrence (he wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover there) as well as the composer Richard Wagner.

Our hotel, Villa Schuler, had a terrace where we had a breakfast each morning of local Sicilian fare. From the terrace we had an unimpeded view of Mount Etna.

A short walk up the road took us to the botanical garden, an absolute treasure with masses of bougainvillea hedges, succulents, cacti and geraniums overflowing their pots, all with a view of the sea.

We wandered through the streets past shop windows full of marzipan fruits and pistachios and ceramics.

From Taormina, we headed to Catania. Be forewarned: driving through this city can be a challenge. We made it with Banana Panda intact.

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